Salt Lake 2017: Compound finals predictions

Even before the end of Salt Lake City, the third stage of the 2017 Hyundai Archery World Cup, two compound women are already locked for spots at the circuit finale. Sara Lopez and Sarah Sonnichsen, respectively the world’s numbers one and two-ranked compound women, will receive invitations to Rome.

Sonnichsen shoots for a second consecutive gold on the tour, while Lopez a second bronze in a row.

Compound women’s gold final:
SARAH SONNICHSEN  / ANDREA MARCOS 

It’s a third gold medal match in a row for Sarah Sonnichsen, who came second in Shanghai and won her first stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup tour in Antalya. Despite being ill all week, the Danish world number two was top seed and averaged 143.5 points a match through the bracket.

“I could feel I wasn’t shooting at my best,” she said. “[All I was thinking about was] to survive. To stand up and to keep standing up. My legs were shaking. I think I managed to survive all matches.”

Marcos has won a leg of the world tour before, in Antalya in 2015, and the 28-year-old is ranked 12th in the world arriving in Salt Lake. Her match average at the event was about two points lower than Sonnichsen’s.

Advantage: Sarah

Compound women’s bronze final:
SONG YUN SOO  / SARA LOPEZ 

Seeded fifth over the compound women’s ranking round, the diminutive Song didn’t lose until the semifinals, when she met Sonnichsen. Her match totals didn’t exceed 140 out of the 150 available points, however – while her bronze medal opponent Lopez didn’t fall below 143 until the final four.

Still ranked world number one, and after winning five stages in a row, Lopez is in the bronze final for a second consecutive leg. With the highest match win percentage (82%) and average arrow (9.63) on the field, she’s favourite.

Advantage: Sara

Compound men’s gold final:
STEPHAN HANSEN  / MIKE SCHLOESSER 

The top two ranked compound men in the world, Hansen (world number one) was World Archery Champion in 2015, while Schloesser (world number two) was World Archery Champion in 2013.

Head-to-head, Hansen has the advantage. The two have faced each other seven times in international competition over the past three years, according to our database, and the Dane has won six of those meetings – three of them with a 10 in a shoot-off.

This week, however, Schloesser’s been better, averaging 9.81 per arrow to Hansen’s 9.68.

Advantage: Push

Compound men’s bronze final:
BRIDGER DEATON  / RODOLFO GONZALEZ 

Making his Hyundai Archery World Cup finals field debut, world number 50 Rodolfo Gonzalez has pedigree as a junior – winning a world youth medal back in 2013 with the Mexican compound men in Wuxi. 

As a senior, his previous best finish was in 2014, when he made the top 10 at the World Cup leg in Medellin – and he’s guaranteed to better than this time around.

Deaton won’t be an easy opponent. Despite only taking individual one medal (bronze) at a Hyundai Archery World Cup stage previously, in Shanghai in 2014, he became World Cup Final Champion that very same year. The lowest seed of the USA compound men in Salt Lake City, he was the only one of them to survive past the fourth round.

Advantage: Bridger

The third stage of the 2017 Hyundai Archery World Cup runs 20 to 25 June in Salt Lake City, USA.

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